When I say weekend, we usually fly out Thursday night and return the following Tuesday morning. So more like a long weekend. This short trip we had the OCTO meet on Saturday and Pomona swapmeet on Sunday.
On the first full day of our trip we got to visit Barry White’s Speed Shop where Adam Ramsey showed us around and couldn’t have been more welcoming. Adam ran us through the history of the shop and showed us around some of the current builds. One of the builds, a black late 60’s Nova was an immaculate show car was in for a full roll cage. Deemed necessary due to the car running too quick at the strip. I do have photos, but we were asked not to share them, which I respect as they were kind enough to let us freely walk around the workshop.
Next up was a visit to Chip Foose Design. Chip and the team open up the doors to their workshop nearly every lunchtime. I was surprised at how small the workshops were. Due to watching Overhauling and American Hot Rod I was expecting a huge aircraft hanger like building. In truth, there are three moderately sized industrial units side by side. One for metalwork, one for prep and paint and the last is used for the final build and also houses a small museum and shop.
Friday night means a trip over to Burbank for cruise night at Bob’s Big Boy diner. Great food, people and always a mix of great cars such as this genuine AC Cobra. It might look a little rough, but boy did it sound great.
White Ford Falcon sat next to an American V8 powered Datsun Z-Car, next to a two-door 32 Ford sedan. Not a bad line up.
Saturday 05:30 alarm call to head on down to OCTO (Orange County Transporter Organization) meet at the Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach. The early start was made easier by cruising down in Henry’s immaculate 1957 23 window Deluxe Samba.
Although it was very wet and the numbers were down, there was still shopping to be done. What was pretty crazy was unexpectedly bumping into friends Adele and Steve, plus Pete from California Classics – the VW scene may be international, but you can’t escape the Brits.
